Some football fans will watch Sunday's Grey Cup alone, focusing intently on the game, while others gather with family and friends, perhaps have a party.
But for some Canadians, the tradition may be lost this year because they can't watch the Montreal Alouettes take on the Calgary Stampeders at all. No Signal!
After more than 50 seasons on conventional television, the Grey Cup will be shown on TSN, an all-sports channel available only on cable or satellite.
This has sparked the ire of Grey Cup fans like Mike Donaldson.
"There's something wrong with that," says Donaldson.
"Every other year I could watch the Grey Cup at home with my family. I'm sitting here with a 50-inch TV and I can't watch the Grey Cup!"
Donaldson lives in rural Alberta, near Elk Island National Park. Cable isn't an option.
The CFL fan half-jokes that he can't justify to his wife the cost of getting a satellite dish just to watch the Grey Cup.
Donaldson has been an Edmonton Eskimos fan for 35 years. His sons played high school football with Eskimos player Chris Ciezki.
Cheering for the CFL comes naturally to him, but this year was tough.
"I never saw one game, not nothing," says Donaldson. "Now the only way I can watch a football game is to go out to a sports bar.
"I would rather be sitting at home with my wife that I've been married to for 30 years and watching (the Grey Cup) at home, rather than go out to a sports bar where it's a bunch of people getting drunk and screaming and yelling."
TSN and French-language affiliate RDS had the broadcast rights to the CFL's entire schedule this year - 72 regular-season games, four division playoff games and the Grey Cup. In the past, TSN had split games with CBC, which would air the final.
TSN is available in nine million homes and president Phil King says "virtually 99 per cent of Canada" could get the channel either via cable or satellite.
King said there have been few complaints about people not being able to watch the Grey Cup.
"I think that's really because ... every single CFL game this year is on TSN, as will be for the next five years, so any CFL fan that perhaps couldn't have TSN at the beginning of the season has probably gone out and gotten it by now," King said in an interview from Montreal.
"You can get a TSN signal if you want to. It is out there."
TSN has planned what it boasts is the most extensive Grey Cup coverage in the history of the CFL, including 11 hours of pre-game coverage Saturday and Sunday. Canadians can also access the full Grey Cup game online. Each quarter will be posted after it's completion.

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Debbie

July 02, 2010 - 13:26

This has nothing to do with this story, but I really wish you guys could format how your stories appear online in a better way, like a bit more space between the paragraphs. It is really hard to read this way. I use firefox btw.

This has nothing to do with this story, but I really wish you guys could format how your stories appear online in a better way, like a bit more space between the paragraphs. It is really hard to read this way. I use firefox btw.